In 2003, I attended a fabulous 5-day seminar on advertising – Adasia, Jaipur. It had amazing speakers like Ricardo Semler (his idea of questioning the office working hours and employee attendance inspired how we shaped our working practice at Learning Curve 7 years later), CK Prahlad (‘when technology evolves, the middlemen die’), Scott Bedbury (his explanation of the #Starbucks insight I...
By understanding what makes it traditional in its meaning and reframing that meaning cleverly. For ages, gold jewelry in India has been an important accessory in the construction of the ‘Ideal Indian Woman’ identity. A god-metal that transforms a woman into Grihlaxmi. A bride laden with gold jewelry brings the promise of abundance &...
15-year-old nephew posted on social media – ‘Been waiting for 41 years for this bronze!’ went a tweet on India’s Olympics hockey win. ‘Bigger than all 3 cricket World Cups !’ Gushed Gautam Gambhir. Is it the revival of India’s love with hockey? Sadly – no. But, it is interesting to understand our excitement around...
Cred’s new ad clearly belongs in the ‘break the internet’ league. The idea of a rude Dravid is interesting & the film is brilliant on all fronts. Understandably, social media is abuzz. It’s the point it made about the brand #Cred that left me wondering. Cred’s previous campaign said – just a damn good service, no...
Papa main class mein first aaya! This might trigger happy (or wistful!) memories for you. Academic success means different things to the different people involved. For parents – it’s acknowledgement of successful parenting and optimism for the child’s future, often compensation for their own relative lack of opportunities and success. For the child – it...
If you follow cricket keenly, you have come across expert opinion on pitches. Typically – Australian pitches are fast & bouncy, English pitches support swing & seam while the Indian pitches aid spinners. On the face of it, these variations are geographical, which is why teams from these countries have produced legendary bowlers accordingly. The...
‘When a person doesn’t have colours in his life, he puts them in his clothing’. (Jab insaan ki zindagi mein rang nahin hotey, toh wo unhe apne kapdo mein daal deta hai). Said Govinda offering an insight into his core audience during his best days in Bollywood. That’s why brand Govinda’s ‘trademark look’ was (to...
‘Then it is better to have two housewives in the team instead of two planners’ – I said half-jokingly to two of my favorite junior planners. The point I was making was – listen to the consumer, but don’t take everything you hear at face value. Insights are about interpreting what has been said in...
Achcha nahi bana kya? a question I often faced from mom, a phenomenal cook, while eating. My response, a distracted ‘nahi theek hai sab’ while busy with whatever I was reading while eating. She would stand around, watch me eat before getting busy again. In early 2000, we shared a study we had done on #homemaking with...
When the hero serenades the heroine, a lot of it is about her physical beauty. There are references to various body parts, often using metaphors. Eyes as deep as a lake, face as beautiful as the moon, hair as black and bewitching as a naagin… However, when the heroine sings about the hero, there is...